Checked out this Corps of Engineers campground for future reference. It’s a small campground on the banks of the John Day River where it flows into the Columbia. It was really nice and provided entertainment. That’s right, entertainment. We were sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather when we noticed our neighbors were looking at something through binoculars. Rog and I began scanning the hillside across the river. Soon we saw a herd of 12 or 13 big horn sheep. Most of them appeared to be rams. They were huge. We watched them for...

We headed north on I-5 and turned right at the Columbia River. It is such a pretty drive along there. Many waterfalls along the gorge. We stopped the first night at Rufus Oregon. There is a spot right on the Columbia where wind surfers tend to gather to ride the winds and the waves. Free camping, gorgeous views. There were no surfers tonight though. .
I took a walk around the area and saw a pair of Osprey in a nest. It was fun watching them for a while. There was a pond right behind the camper. I walked around it and saw several very large...

Rufus OR.
We left Umatilla intending to head further south, until we saw a lot of campers and the wind surfers and kite boarders on the Columbia. So we turned in. That is how we do most of our planning. Hah! It is a pretty windy spot but we have a million dollar view, entertainment, and the spot is free. How can you beat that? I saw a few Kite boarders go way high in the sky. Amazing that they can do that. All ages too. I think the average age has to be about 40 here.

It was afternoon in Portland by the time we completed some last minute errands, emptied the holding tanks and topped off the fuel tank. A drive up the Columbia River Gorge is always an interesting trip as the views are always varied, depending on light conditions, wind, rain, etc. Today the wind was strong behind us, so the drive was smooth, but the waves were heavy on the Columbia River.
The Gorge route is on I-84 and with this being the first day of the first holiday of the summer, traffic was heavier than normal. As we are now officially...

We were up and underway at 0830 this morning in Sunny Idaho. There were 5 RV's from Washington in a row at Mountain Home Rv park. Everyone is heading home I guess. Zoey was thrilled that they had grass and a doggie play yard, at this nice place.
Lots of farmland to look at today and we saw lots of green grass. Plus we went through the blue mountains and there were pine trees! I've missed the evergreen trees.
We came up behind this rather strange yellow vehicle today. What is this, a bloated banana? A yellow tank on the back of a truck?...

BAU Date 10/2/2013
Ah, retirement. The excitement never stops. Monday (9/30) we were traveling from Spokane headed for Salem, OR. Along I-84 about 20 miles east of Biggs, OR a trucker pulled alongside honking his horn and pointing. I looked at the back up camera screen and saw a car engulfed in flames. It was ours.
We pulled to the side of the road and stopped. There was not a great deal of room as we were alongside the Columbia river. Three truckers and a family pulling a 5th wheel stopped and jumped out. All of us grabbed fire...

Before we reached the John Day Dam, we crossed the river on the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge to Briggs Junction and continued eastbound on I-84 to the Rufus Army Corp of Engineers campground.
The campsites were small and a little tight for us big rigs, but we made it. We had a nice view of the John Day River with 30amps to run our A/C since it was 105 outside. We were going to stay for 2 nights to enjoy the water, but not in this heat. Tomorrow we are going to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho ahead of schedule to escape this heat.

An awesome find! A gorgeous campground on the Columbia river. We had a river front site -- if you took 10 steps out the RV door, you'd fall down into the river! See pictures (most taken from the RV front door). Jack enjoyed the swim beach, biking around the loop, and flying his kite. We did a quick trip into town for a few groceries (and beverages for Hood to Coast).

To visit this area we used the small Corp of Engineer LaPage campground on the confluence of the John Day River and the Columbia River. We were lucky to get a site right on the river. A great place for R&R.
Our first day of exploring the area we stopped first at the John Day Dam, just west of our campground, on the Columbia River. Here we learnt how they had built diversions for salmon both going up the river at the spawning season and back to the sea of the young salmon.
We then crossed the river into Washington State and stopped at their...

Today we traveled, oh, maybe 15 or 20 miles; very strenuous driving! Actually, we left the Deschutes River State Park and went further east on the Columbia River to stay at a Corps of Engineers Park. It wasn’t far away, but we like the Corps parks and this one didn’t open for the season until April 1 or we would have been here yesterday. As it is, we are the first and only campers so far this year, and we are totally enjoying a relaxing day all by ourselves. Lots of hiking, dog Frisbee and wood gathering, I washed the car and the front of...